


Widow and the Magpie

by LlmFr



Series: Magpies are both good and bad [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Assassin Tony Stark, Hydra Tony Stark, Natashas just making Tony regret making “playboy” part of his cover, Oneshot, They called Tony “Magpie” when he was an active asset, blame nat, hes trying, ms Potts out here tryna make Tony an honest man, no that isn’t a reference to a potential Nat/Tony, outline, poor Happy, sorry kids, this ain’t gonna get a complete story from me, this was actually supposed to be Winteriron, winter soldier tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 09:27:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27968294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LlmFr/pseuds/LlmFr
Summary: After reassuming his identity as Tony Stark, rogue HYDRA operative famously known as “Magpie”, imagine his surprise when supposed SHIELD Agent and his former student Black Widow tries to get “Ironman” on their team.(This had a long ass full chaptered story but I gave up on it since I couldn’t get all my one shot-like chapters to tie together. Series description has all the details. Feel free to use these as reference for your own story/world building cause I would love to read that.)
Series: Magpies are both good and bad [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2048414
Comments: 1
Kudos: 37





	Widow and the Magpie

**Author's Note:**

> This whole scene is basically Tony’s first interaction with someone he knew before he broke ties with HYDRA. Everyone’s sus but he knows he’s too far in the limelight and too adept in the dark to be threatened by his former student.

The day the red-head named "Natalie" appeared in his house side-by-side Pepper, his heart nearly dropped.

It felt like he was back there, back when he watched her saunter on light toes in front of big mirrors and rated her by her bloody hands with a cold eye in an even colder room.

But he wasn’t there because Pepper’s heels were too loud and Happy’s breathing too deep and before he knew it, he had dropped and kicked the legs out from beneath the poor man with a little more force than one might in an innocent spar.

"What the hell! I remember vividly saying ‘no dirty boxing’, we’re working on upper body if you didn’t remember." Happy whined from the ground, clutching his knees. "Holy shit Stark where’d you learn to kick?" He groaned. His shin looked like it would develope a rather handsome bruise.

"Woops." Tony moved to help him up. "Er, wasn’t it like, five minutes ago when I said I was doing mixed martial-whatever?" He ignored the snort he herd in the background. 

"Yeah, well, sounded pretty bullshit five minutes ago." Happy shifted to a hunched stand when he finally got up, a slight limp to his gait. Tony patted his back and led him to the edge of the ring, "how about you take a break for a bit, can’t have you stumbling around, Bambi."

"How benevolent of you." He limped steadily out the ring when absolutely brilliant Pepper offered her help out the hall and possibly to medical.

Which left him alone with the lovely redhead. 

"So. What’s your name gorgeous?" He said with a pseudo-calm only ever developed by a lifetimes practice. He casually strolled around her, prowling almost.

"Natalie. Natalie Rushman." Her voice smooth, missing her old Russian flavor.

"Is it really?" He shot back.

"It would seem so."

"Mhm, right, ok, You know, as much as I’m aquanted with this cloak and dagger schtick, Imma go straight to the point and ask ‘why are you really here?’ since I’m having a real hard time believing you’ve simply turned over a new leaf." He casually leaned against the entryway. She doesn’t even blink.

Too confident.

"I could say the same for you." Her smug tone struck a rather unhappy chord with him.

"Well, of the two of us," he said walking over to his holographic table, "I actually have a life with years of nosey press to prove it whereas you seem to have appeared out of air." He pulled up a search bar. "Ya see, I bet if I just run through the background log on this gorgeous panty photo it starts at... oh look at that, two months ago! I thought it was posted five years ago."

"It was reuploaded." She shot back.

"Do you really want me to check?"

"Your point?"

"My point is get the fuck out of my penthouse and go lick your wounds at whatever super secret boy band you’re backstabbing at now."

(Extra conversation which I couldn’t figure out how to merge + Ending)

"The question is whether that really was your life to begin with."

He kind of had to smirk at that despite the underlying —and false— insult. At least then he knows her informant aren’t quite as intimate with his past as they’d like to think. Touché, I almost commend her on her confidence.

"I’m really not liking this conversation’s focus on me so how about we segue back to you, Ms. Rushman."

"I’m here for an assessment."

"Oh, well I hope it’s not on Pepper or, god forbid, me." She gave him a long hard look. "Well then... sucks to be you." When he turned to leave he felt a hand on his shoulder and stopped.

Resisting the strong urge to snap her wrist he ground through his teeth, "I highly suggest you put some distance between yourself and me."

He felt her step back. "I don’t work with the Red-Room anymore." That explains the shitty intel.

"And I don’t suppose I’m irrational when I say I don’t believe you."

"SHIELD is my new employer. Trust me when I say they’re a lot less morally questionable."

"And what makes you think you’ll earn that trust, Widow?"

"Because I have nothing on me except for one mini-blade in my heel. SHIELD wants a pack of saviors instead of killers and in recent time, you’ve somehow met that criteria, Magpie. Therefore, I am here to make sure that isn’t just the press talking pretty about the supposed reformed billionaire."

His hand itched for her neck at ‘Magpie’ and he leveled her a glare. "Ironman isn’t a new Magpie."

‘Natalie’ gave him a cold, almost serene smile, "No, he’s not. But Tony Stark is and I hope you don’t get the two mixed up. For the worlds sake of course." She clarified.

"Well. As honored as I am, I trust SHIELD no more than HYDRA regardless of how many knives you keep on you. All the same with their secrety secrets and probably agendas if we boil down to it."

Her smile dropped and she almost looked offended. "SHIELD is meant to fight HYDRA." Of course it didn’t show in her voice.

He gave her a sardonic, almost pitying grin. "Sorry honey, but no they aren’t."

In that moment, Pepper, lovely lovely Pepper, comes rushing back in all her six inch stiletto glory. "Oh god Natalie, I appologize in advance if he’s done something stupid."

"Nothing of the sort, Ms. Potts." She responds in a voice of sex while glancing in his direction. Oh so she’s playing that game.

Of course Pepper glares at Tony because he’s always the guilty party. "Well, isn’t that suspicious..." She smoothly walks by him whispering, "I hope my new assistant didn’t just become a scandle Mr. Stark, for my sake and yours." Before taking her side by Ms. ‘Rushman’. Traiter.

"I’m innocent, I swear I kept my goods to myself." He defends.

She only levels him a suspicious look, "hmm, yeah, ok well Natalie, did you manage the impressions?"

Impressions?  
They got sweet lovable scary Pepper on their side?

"Oh! Yes, of course, I was distracted." She replied with a slightly sheepish tone and rubbing her neck, holding out a folder and ink pad. "May I have your impression Mr. Stark?"

Hostilities aside, he does manage a laugh at "Iron man: Yes, Tony Stark: Not Reconmended."

**Author's Note:**

> I had two ideas for how their conversation would go and the break in the middle is really just the point in their conversation that I was still figuring out how to merge.
> 
> ADDITIONALLY, 
> 
> I don’t get why people take the whole Ironman Recommended thing so seriously in these kind of AUs. Like, I feel like if BlackWidow knew Tony when he was an Assassin/Winter Soldier/Magpie, then she’d be like, “yeah, I’d be great if you pretended to be good since you an me know you can be really nasty” and the whole SHIELD evaluation thing would be a quiet nod to that. A nod which Tony would find a little amusing. 
> 
> At least in this AU thing since here BlackWidow has always been really quiet about who she knew in the past (and frankly, for her Magpie was just another teacher, not someone to be noted) so when she sees Tony as a somewhat friendly, she doesn’t rat him out to shield even though she understands he could be a threat. She’s loyal to shield but knows siccing them on Tony would cause more harm than necessary with his position and skills.


End file.
